3 words to save your life – emergency services want people to download this app

Will you download the app? (Photo: Shutterstock)

Rhona Shennan

Published:3:46 pmAugust 15, 2019

A clever app originally created due to confusion over postcodes is being used successfully in emergency situations.

The emergency services are now urging people to download it, as it could save your life one day.

what3words

Called what3words, the app divides the entire world up into 57 trillion 10 foot by 10 foot squares. Each square is then given an individual and unique ‘address’, made up of three random words.

The app is particularly useful for the emergency services if someone in need of help is in an area that they aren’t familiar with, or doesn’t have an address, like a field, forest or mountain. It is also useful in situations like an emergency at an outdoor music festival, which is a large open space and filled with people.

Instead of relying on general directions and vague descriptions, the what3words app instantly provides the unique address, allowing the emergency services to find your exact location.

This app could save your life (Photo: JPIMedia)

From the emergency services’ end, they can type in your three word location and be given accurate directions to find you.

The app also does not need a phone signal in order to tell someone their three word location.

The app has been successfully used in a variety of emergency situations, including allowing police to find a 65 year old man who became trapped after falling down a railway embankment in Sheffield, and also helping the Fire and Rescue Service to find a woman who had crashed her car and didn’t know where she was.